Edward H. Herbert and Level Green Plantation

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UPDATE! (4/11/13) Special thanks to Mark Schumann for the photographs. Mark is a descendant of the Herbert family, and forwarded these photos to me. I thought they warranted a re-publish of this article, originally published on 11/5/12.

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Edward H. Herbert was born on the family farm in what is now the Berkeley section of Norfolk in 1806. The Herbert family has a long history in Hampton Roads, beginning with a land grant from the King of England to George Herbert in 1650. The Herberts were shipbuilders from their earliest days in the New World, but Edward would choose a life in farming. Moving just a few miles to the east, he purchased 200 acres of the former David Murray estate in Princess Anne County and established Level Green Plantation in 1833.

Riveredge, the home to several generations of Herberts in Berkeley. Riveredge would later serve as the childhood home of a young Douglas MacArthur. Photo courtesy of Mark Schumann.

Mr. Herbert would grow Level Green to nearly 600 acres over the next 25 years, and establish himself as a successful farmer in Princess Anne County. He continued to expand his property north to the banks of the Elizabeth River through additional land purchases, from present day Sunnyside Drive to Whitehurst Landing.

Edward H. Herbert. Undated photo courtesy of Mark Schumann.

Mr. Herbert died on December 4, 1862. In his will, he directed his land holdings be sold upon the death of his wife Margaret (she died in 1870), and it is at this time that the land between Providence Road and the Elizabeth River is first referred to as "Woodstock Farm" in court documents.

The area near the intersection of Providence Road and Indian River Road would be known as "Herberts" for the next hundred years; but today, the once prominent family name is nowhere to be found. The Level Green neighborhood offers one of the only remaining references to this areas pre-Civil War history.



NOTES

In several documents, E. H. Herbert has the title "Colonel", though I have not found evidence of a military career. Several of Edwards children were active in the Civil War, but as far as I can tell he remained a farmer during the conflict. Union troops did occupy one of his houses during the war.

There is a land survey of Mr. Herbert's entire estate at the time of his death that presumably shows the borders of Level Green Plantation, though I cannot locate this document. It does not appear to exist at the Virginia Beach courthouse, and the records previously on file in the Norfolk Circuit Court also seem to have disappeared.

There is an 1871 land survey of Woodstock Farm and "Branchville" (Avalon Terrace and Whitehurst Landing today) at the Virginia Beach Courthouse. I have superimposed the survey over a modern-day Google Maps photo of the area, to clearly show the area covered by Woodstock Farm:

 

 

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The Mystery Herbert House

I mentioned in an earlier post how appreciative I am of the Virginia Beach Central Library and the staff there. Early in my research I asked them for any information they had on Edward Herbert and Level Green Plantation. They produced several newspaper articles, some family tree info and also several old photographs of a house. There was a hand-written note in pencil next to one of the photos that simply said;

 

House in Kempsville

Think -- now gone

Herbert prop.

Other photos of the same house were similarly labelled, "Herbert house" with no additional information on where the house was located, when it was built, or when the photos were taken. This, of course, fired up the history detective in me: I had to learn more about this mystery house.

The house most often associated with the Herbert Family is probably Sunnyside, formerly located at 301 Riverton Point (the 19th century house was demolished in 1990). Sunnyside remained in the Herbert family for over 150 years, and was featured in a tour of historic homes in Virginia Beach.  However, a quick glance at the two homes shows that the mystery house is not Sunnyside.

 

Sunnyside

 

Sunnyside probably wasn't the plantation house for Level Green anyway. Level Green was established in 1833, south of "the main road leading from Norfolk to Kempsville" (Providence Road). Edward Herbert didn't purchase the land around Sunnyside Drive until 1850. Edward's son, Arthur Herbert purchased several tracts of his father's land in 1882, including 100 acres "... of Level Green estate, on which all buildings stood" south of the Indian River Turnpike (Princess Anne County Deed Book 56, page 80). That particular parcel remained farm land until the early 1970's, so satellite imagery from historicaerials.com proved helpful here. The 1963 imagery shows a plantation-style arrangement of a few structures and several large trees surrounded by farm land immediately west of what is now the intersection of Tradewinds Drive and Level Green Blvd.

 

the photo was labelled, in pencil, "Herbert house, Kempsville"

 

The structures were located at the end of a lane that began at the intersection of Providence and Indian River Roads. I will mention here that while Indian River Road was not constructed until after the Civil War, Providence Road did exist in 1833.

 

Unidentified photo, part of the "Herbert house" photo collection

 

 

I found the most recent piece of evidence while on a date night with my wife, Robby. Flipping through pages at the Barnes & Noble in Town Center, I was surprised by a photo in the book, Virginia Beach (Then & Now) by Amy Hayes Castleberry. In the chapter "Eastern Branch, Kempsville and Newtown" there is a photo of a house that is all-but-identical to the house in the mystery photo. The house is identified as "Level Green".

 

The quality of the satellite imagery is not good enough to compare to the house photos to confirm a match, so I wouldn't say that my research is conclusive; however, all of the evidence that I do have suggests that the house in the picture is, in fact, the Level Green plantation house, probably constructed some time around 1833 after Edward Herbert purchased that land; located at what is now the intersection of Tradewinds Drive and Level Green Blvd. According to USGS maps on historicaerials.com, the plantation house probably survived right up until the construction of the Level Green neighborhood in the early-to-mid 1970's. Perhaps someone who has lived in this area longer than I have can offer some insight?

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